December

On New Year’s Day, the 13-year-old North American Free Trade Act linking the United States, Mexico and Canada will come into full bloom as the remaining tariffs on agricultural products, including corn, beans, sugar, milk and chicken, are lifted.

OAKLAND, Calif. — Earlier this month, the mayors of four San Francisco Bay Area cities — Oakland, Richmond, Berkeley and Emeryville — announced formation of the East Bay Green Corridor Partnership, together with leaders of the University of California at Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The partnership’s ambitious goals: to build “the heart of the East Bay into a dynamic Green Corridor” and “to lead the world in environmental innovation, emerging green business and industry, green jobs, and renewable energy.”

There is a tendency among U.S. trade union leaders, shop stewards and rank-and-file activists to strongly distrust federal and state agencies charged with protecting workers’ health and safety — and therefore not to utilize them.

Service and maintenance workers at Yale University, members of Local 35 Unite Here, have become the target of an anti-immigrant hate group seeking to create racial divisions and undermine the union leadership.

COLUMBUS, Ohio—Coming on the heels of organizing victories in Cincinnati and Houston, some 1,200 janitors here, organizing with SEIU, won contracts with nine of the city’s largest employers last month.